tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-78031912451712857952017-08-15T11:52:28.230+01:00Bristol TrafficIn which we explore the options for getting round Bristol (*), and the consequences of those decisions.
(*) Excluding Fishponds.SteveLnoreply@blogger.comBlogger1924125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7803191245171285795.post-13408949224824597232017-05-15T22:58:00.000+01:002017-05-15T22:59:20.116+01:00The Centre: East to West: From Mediocre to DangerousFollowing on from our t<a href="https://bristolcars.blogspot.co.uk/2017/04/metrobus-enhanced-centre-west-to-east.html" target="_blank">rip across The Centre from West to East</a>, here is the west to east experience.<br /><br /><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/Ne2ZMe5ZvYM?rel=0" width="560"></iframe>, h<br /><br />Heading up Queen Charlotte Street from Queens Square, we first get to see a near-collision between a deliveroo rider and a small child running out from the side. It's possible to conclude the rider doesn't have a small child, or they'd have known that trying to control one is futile: asking the parent to do so even more so. "Fuck off you wanker" is the correct response here.<br /><br />Then it's left onto the half-of-Baldwin Street path. A lot of people accuse Ferguson of following some anti-car, pro bicycle policy. Well, this is the main legacy of his of his reign from a cycling perspective. London also had a mayor prepared to sacrifice the country in his ambition to become PM.<br /><br />The Baldwin Street path starts of as a reference example of what modern thinking on segregated cycle routes should be: not just a safe separation from cars, but a clearly delineated separation from people on foot, the bikes not having to weave between people -better for all.<br /><br />It then switches to being a reference example of what you expect to see in Bristol: the bike path suddenly gives up in order to have some car parking, before ending up at some lights. Here the other tax-dodger decides not to stop for the lights, so proving that we do show such events when they happen. Its notable that actually he had less to worry about across the junction than our reporter, what with the past-the-lights taxi and the van swerving over to pick up a mate.<br /><br />On to Baldwin Street, and what do we see? <br /><br /><ul><li>An explicitly cut out path to the lights +10</li><li>Some lights: 0</li><li>No clear indication of which bits of the lights your bike should go to: -10 </li><li>Lights green when the road going straight on:&nbsp;+10</li><li>A central plaza where there is no indication whatsoever of where you are meant to go to cycle across to the other side; -10</li><li>Another set of lights with no clear cues as to which side a bike should be on: -10</li><li>The lights now red, so adding a delay of ten seconds: -5</li><li>Roadworks in the middle so not actually proving any way to cycle further: -20</li><li>Some pedestrian lights to wait for and use: +5</li><li>Signs of a bike path possibly appearing by the hippodrome: +10</li><li>The bike path not being ready to use:&nbsp; -5 </li><li>The need to execute (badly) a bunny-hop to get your bike up the kerb *<i>where the road to Colston-the-Slaver-Hill used to be</i>*-10</li><li>Another bit of utterly undelineated bike path: -10</li><li>The utterly undelinated bike path now abandoning you to a road where nobody expects bikes to come from: -20</li></ul>Overall then: 35 points of good,&nbsp; -25 points of work-in-progress points (the chaos, the bunny hop, the bike path. And -60 points of fundamental structural flaws. A mishmash of walk/cycle routes with artistic tiles providing now cues as to where a bike should go, so hard-coding conflict into the centre at the cost of some premium tiling.<br /><br />This was done by someone who wants "an urban realm" design, despite the fact they've just added a new road and bus line through the heart of the area, someone who doesn't actually want bikes there and finds the idea of having a functional way to get across by bike unsightly. It is, to use a technical term, "bollocks".<br /><br />the worst part is probably the approach to Colston Hill. Until recently, there was a road entrance there. All they had to add was a sign and some build out to narrow the entrance. Everything else was in place. Except they spent money on adding a new pavement and some tiles, and in doing so removed the option of a safe exit. Now all private vehicles on that road will be entering or exiting Pipe Lane: a road where the road signage has been changed so that Colston Street has lost the right of way it used to have. This is now dangerous.<br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />Bristol Traffichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17086394853567703369noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7803191245171285795.post-18542142826775517722017-05-04T23:25:00.002+01:002017-05-05T08:57:02.254+01:00Don't worry Richard Eddy: there's still Colston Mini MartCllr Richard Eddy is apparently <a href="https://thebristolian.net/2017/05/03/colston-hall-name-change-hally-mchallface/">refusing to visit Colston Hall</a>, once <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-bristol-39718149">it's no longer named</a> after someone who'd be on trial for Crimes against Humanity were they to attempt the same business today.<br /><br /><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-EWdYeKJEFlU/WQudF2DKXcI/AAAAAAAAGSI/JlUzwtLJr3I9r6hIwAHP6GqyJbTt40HzQCLcB/s1600/Screen%2BShot%2B2017-05-04%2Bat%2B22.15.54.png" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" height="286" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-EWdYeKJEFlU/WQudF2DKXcI/AAAAAAAAGSI/JlUzwtLJr3I9r6hIwAHP6GqyJbTt40HzQCLcB/s400/Screen%2BShot%2B2017-05-04%2Bat%2B22.15.54.png" width="400" /></a><br /><br />Because yes, it's named after Bristol's most important slave trader, and it's something the city should recognise is an affront to the rest of the country. Naming a prestigious building after a slaver may have been considered socially acceptable in the Victorian era, but we've moved on: time for the city to. That includes the two Colston Schools, the various roads, an ugly 1970s tower block and other bloodstains round the city.<br /><br />What the renaming has shown up is how controversial the topic still is: from polls in the evening post, to articles in the "foreign-interference in the UK election national press", condemning "political correctness" for this historical revisionism. Well, yes, celebrating slavery is considered "politically incorrect" these days.<br /><br />It's interesting what it's thrown up through, not just the view of it as a left-wing/right-wing split, but it can also be seen as a Bristolian vs "newcomer" split, with "Bristolian, born and bred" being a code-phrase for "not from London". Well, it's easy for people to feel defensive, but really changing the name of the hall isn't an attack on Bristol, it's moving the city on. Or, as The Bristolian notes: nobody has ever cared about what happens to parts of the city that aren't associated with it rulers, be it schools across the city, the river the M32 was built over, or any bit of greenery that doesn't have the word "Clifton" in its title or address. For people who want to know a bit more about these topics, consider <a href="http://www.brh.org.uk/site/">the Bristol Radical History group</a>.<br /><br />What about Richard Eddy? Is he going to suddenly discover that alongside the history of Bristol's elite, there's the history of Bristol's residents, from the miners of Bedminster to the striking bus drivers of 1960s St Pauls? Unlikely. Instead he's just chosen to be ever excluded from the <i>building-formerly-known-as-Colston-Hall</i>.<br /><br />We have some good news here: Colston Mini Mart still stands strong against this wave of political correctness<br /><br />People don't appreciate this, but Colston Mini Mart has an important role to play in the city. It is the nearest place to the Bristol Heart Institute where you can buy cigarettes. You don't appreciate this until you're stuck in there for a week, the same wrist band giving you a wifi password marking you out as someone the door staff won't let out. You're reduced to texting friends and family to visit, bringing up with them a double latte from Costa and a pack of silk cuts. Then you can sneak out after hours onto the balcony and have a quick cigarette while sharing anecdotes of heart bypasses. Nothing to smoke and the remains of your life may be longer, but it will be more painful.<br /><br /><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-GoSE4Ix_X0s/WQudFyGrukI/AAAAAAAAGSM/wybGzhnLiFI1fX8qDJflvn7cVk3j7XMLwCLcB/s1600/Screen%2BShot%2B2017-05-04%2Bat%2B22.14.35.png" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" height="271" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-GoSE4Ix_X0s/WQudFyGrukI/AAAAAAAAGSM/wybGzhnLiFI1fX8qDJflvn7cVk3j7XMLwCLcB/s400/Screen%2BShot%2B2017-05-04%2Bat%2B22.14.35.png" width="400" /></a><br /><br />That's what we all have to look forward too. All that we get to choose is: do we get anything from the Colston Mini Mark on the way out. Here then, Richard Eddy will be able to go out with the rest of the city. Bristol Traffichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17086394853567703369noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7803191245171285795.post-13283754817333102462017-04-23T21:19:00.001+01:002017-04-23T21:20:51.401+01:00Metrobus Enhanced Centre: west to east Apparently the Metrobus project will bring wonderful cycling facilities to the city.<br /><br />We await this with curiosity.<br /><br />We do know that<br /><ul><li>right now there is nothing</li><li>there is nothing on the travelwest web site about how to get across alive on a bicycle</li><li>the travelwest web site can't even get their "out of baldwin street for cars" map right.</li></ul>Overall not a good sign. <br /><br />Historically, the crossing which is blocked was a walk/cycle crossing where you could cycle randomly around until you made it over. This never actually glued up very well with baldwin street, on account of the railings and the oncoming traffic; you'd have to head over to the bit of the centre which was bus lane only, cycle over the ped crossings there, or go down the bus &amp; bike bit of road the bus drivers felt were theirs. Or you stay on the ped/cycle inner bit, zig zag through people and children, creating the impression that cyclists were tax dodging criminals who cycled where they shouldn't. Yes, the evening post did an article on that topic a very long time ago.<br /><br /><br />So, we sent our expendable tax dodger to go west-east across the centre to see how things are today<br /><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/p6R3fniAD1o?rel=0" width="560"></iframe><br /><br />Pretty awful at the start, mediocre in the middle, and just as bad as before at the end.<br /><br />Awful at the start: well, what do you do? No signs, just a closed off crossing. Our tax dodger eventually went for the coned off lane in the middle and made their way to the new bit of the centre.<br /><br /><br />Mediocre at the middle. The one thing the Baldwin Street path gets right is: clearly delineated as a bike path. Tax dodgers stay on it, people don't walk down the middle (Except on friday nights, obviously), and people on the pavement don't have to worry about cyclists weaving through them because there's a f-obvious bike lane to use instead.<br /><br />The new design has some faint tiles on the ground which may mean its a bike lane. Hard to tell. They don't currently join up with anything.<br /><br />There's some new lights, possibly split into bike &amp; ped, but with no cues, everyone just spread out. Watch out for the person nearly being hit by the turning bus: bit of a design flaw there, even if that's where the cyclists are meant to be.<br /><br />Finally, at the end, just as bad as before. It does look like there might be some link off to the left, but again, it's been made out of artisanal tiles rather than useful roadbuilding materials, so who knows. You can avoid worrying about this by getting onto the bus zone, coming off it to get towards the Arnolfini.<br /><br /><br />Once you've actually crossed the centre, you can get down to the prince st bridge (walking), then on to bedminster. Why? Motaman is having a closing down sale! Bedminster's main shopping destination is being shut down as the building is being turned into flats! Gentrification is coming to Bemmy and it's not good.<br /><br />Bristol Traffichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17086394853567703369noreply@blogger.com3Colston St, Bristol BS1, UK51.4557335 -2.597567700000013251.4507865 -2.6076527000000134 51.4606805 -2.5874827000000131tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7803191245171285795.post-33731685205207987992017-04-19T11:12:00.001+01:002017-04-19T11:12:22.075+01:00Pavements cause pollution.Known saboteur Redvee has a video up showing the taxi WR54KZX forced to drive on the pavement to turn left into Bridewell Street. <br /><br /><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/kGBSSAROcwI?rel=0" width="560"></iframe><br /><br />We say forced, as this is clearly due to the Metrobus roadworks going on further ahead on the road. Before Metrobus there were never any queues on the roads leading to the Centre, and so no need for taxis to drive on pavements in order to stop this city grinding to a halt. And, as this is a 2004 EURO3 Diesel taxi, the pollution from its engine is awful, even by the standards of the VW test rigging team. By driving up on the pavement, the Taxi reduced the amount of pollution the city experiences. This is why pavements cause pollution. No pavements: more lanes. No pavements: fewer people walking, no need for zebra crossings or pedestrian phases in lights. We must do more in our city to discourage walking —even more than the Metrobus works team are already doing for us.<br /><br />One thing to consider though: the taxi did go up the blind spot of that bus. If the bus had turned left the taxi and its passengers could have been crushed.<br /><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-bbYb2ksIKLI/WPc2ZmN5lEI/AAAAAAAAGR4/XakfFsAb94kfvMnu_AA7ry6kcY8mPKxRACLcB/s1600/Screen%2BShot%2B2017-04-19%2Bat%2B11.04.10.png" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" height="182" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-bbYb2ksIKLI/WPc2ZmN5lEI/AAAAAAAAGR4/XakfFsAb94kfvMnu_AA7ry6kcY8mPKxRACLcB/s400/Screen%2BShot%2B2017-04-19%2Bat%2B11.04.10.png" width="400" /></a><br /><br />We propose that every bus and lorry in the city should have a sign warning taxis not to drive up the inside of them to prevent such a calamity happening in futureBristol Traffichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17086394853567703369noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7803191245171285795.post-64892192086808642212017-04-18T12:10:00.002+01:002017-04-18T12:10:38.879+01:00The Evening Post discovers the Bristol Traffic Photo PortfolioWe don't do much coverage of the Evening Post these days, primarily because we've given up reading it. Eventually you get tired of its whiningly repetitive stance against resident parking and 20 mph zones, portraying them as a war on motorists, the death of the cities, a tax on Bristolians, etc. etc. The one thing we never saw was anything praising how the yellow lines have made paveparking and "optimistic corner parking" illegal —and how this was making inner Bristol a nicer place to walk.<br /><br />Because the bits of the city with RPZ markings have had their pavements restored, and are now easier to walk round with a pushchair those areas still saying "RPZ isn't needed here", such as, say, St Andrews, where the contrast between that and adjacent Montpelier is now significant.<br /><br />But no, no coverage of that in Evening Post articles, something we criticised it for in the past in <a href="https://bristolcars.blogspot.co.uk/2015/06/rpz-comes-to-monty-oh-inhumanity.html" target="_blank">a post looking at the history of pavements, parking and "walking opportunities" along Richmond Road</a>, notable for nowhere to walk but the road and being an awful road to drive up or down: cars almost touching on both sides, nowhere to pass an oncoming cyclist, let alone oncoming car. With the RPZ rollout it became not only better to walk and cycle, it became driveable. <br /><br />From the sole printed press news source in the city: silence.<br /><br />It's interesting to discover then, that the paper has now moved on from "20 mph will kill our city" to "pavement parking is epidemic" and "<a href="http://www.bristolpost.co.uk/news/bristol-news/pavement-parking-now-thing-more-15778.amp" target="_blank">is pavement parking getting worse?</a>" The latter is quite amusing as we've been covering this issue for coming on a decade, and the main reason we cut back on coverage was that the RPZ reduced it so much that life was boring. It was not "epidemic", it is "endemic": so widespread and ongoing it barely merits a mention.<br /><br />The BEP hasn't picked up on that, instead it's filled the paper with various photos of what to us look like everyday parking scenes in the bits of the city that aren't RP-Zoned. If you find it shocking, you need to go for a walk. Anyway, they had the pics up, no doubt shocking those people who don't walk further than the car they've parked on the pavement outside their home. For us, all too familiar. Very much all too familiar. In fact, one which was so familiar we recognised it as one of our own photos<br /><br /><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Xaze3TzIYek/UcXW6KtPDqI/AAAAAAAAFkw/nITfiwCMOg4/s1600/P1090320.JPG"><img alt="" border="0" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Xaze3TzIYek/UcXW6KtPDqI/AAAAAAAAFkw/nITfiwCMOg4/s400/P1090320.JPG" /></a><br /><br /><br />This photo originally appeard in a post denouncing the car S589JDG for being parked on the specific bit of pavement where Richmond Road narrows —and in doing so, <a href="https://bristolcars.blogspot.co.uk/2013/06/a-community-rpz-it-montpelier-as-if.html" target="_blank">stopping cars and vans getting down the hill</a>. That was the reason it had earned a note criticising its parking: not for paveparking, but for paveparking in a way inconsiderate of other drivers.<br /><br />That photo was published in 2013, republished in an article 2015, where we used it as one of the "before/after" articles on the RPZ changes, an article which explicitly<a href="https://bristolcars.blogspot.co.uk/2015/06/rpz-comes-to-monty-oh-inhumanity.html" target="_blank"> called out the BEP for its failure to cover the benefits of RPZs for pedestrians</a>.<br /><br /><b>The photo the Evening Post printed was taken from an article criticising the Evening Post's coverage of pavement parking and RPZs.</b><br /><br />Amusing as it is, it is still a copyright infringement. <br /><br />We have a non-normative policy towards reuse of our images and videos.<br /><br /><a href="https://thebristolian.net/" target="_blank">The Bristolian</a>: unlimited rights, no permission needed.<br /><br />Everyone else: ask first<br /><ol><li>If the requester is one of: Daily Mail, Sun, Telegraph, tell them to fuck off. </li><li>If the requester is any other press org, we'd check with the original submitter, probably give approval with credit due us and that original submitter. (if the original author refused, that'd be passed back too)</li><li>Videos: Link/embed them without any restrictions (obviously), but no to use in some video remake unless its more than just some branding exercise. And again, the Daily Mail can fuck off.</li></ol>Now what about publication without getting permission?<br /><ol><li>If it was timely news, again, no problem.</li><li>If it was some photo from the archives, well that's a different matter. Any failure to check there has to be be a due diligence failure or a wilful disregard of our property. </li></ol>The last time this happened, we extracted a donation to the Bristol Cycling Campaign. Someone had clearly just googled for an image <a href="https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=car+parked+on+zebra+crossing" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">"car parked on zebra crossing"</a>, and copied the photo without bothering to question image licensing T&amp;Cs.<br /><br />What about now?<br /><br />We see two ways forward without resorting to the legal system, DMCA copyright takedowns, etc.<br /><h4>Option One: a modest donation —say £250— to the Bristol Cycling Campaign.&nbsp;</h4>Easy all round, it'd make upfor publish an article denouncing cyclists for cycling over a shared use bridge designed for walking and cycling on. We'd get some good coverage of the fact that the BEP was now supporting cycling campaigners in the city.<br /><h4>Option two: an in depth review how the RPZ makes walking in Bristol better.</h4>We to collaborate on an article looking at <a href="https://bristolcars.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/richmond-road" target="_blank">richmond road</a>'s pavement parking over time, where the van-passing incident was nearly one of the bad examples. Here we could not only provide photos from our archives, we could approach <a href="http://bristolcars.blogspot.co.uk/2008/09/colston-school-parents-not-getting.html" target="_blank">the Montpelier resident forced to walk her kids home from school down the middle of the road</a>. She could not only cover the experience of a parent in the "before" period, but her experience now that the RPZ has been rolled out. Maybe she could even talk about the impact of the RPZ on driving round the area.<br /><br />Seems a reasonable choice to us. Fund the cycling campaign after a week of denouncing cyclists for going on a bridge built for them, or get an opportunity to work on a fascinating article looking at how a inner city parental school dropoff experience has been transformed for the better by the RPZ rollout. <br /><br />Personally, we'd like the article —it would be a good follow up to the previous ones, and we don't want the author of those articles to feel chastised for writing the first articles we've ever seen to criticise paveparking. We'd even help with the content.<br /><br />Over to you, Team Evening Post<br /><br />Bristol Traffichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17086394853567703369noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7803191245171285795.post-53974365127202302892017-03-10T00:01:00.000+00:002017-03-10T00:01:11.590+00:00Proposed: tax vehicles based on their widthA quick trip through the capital of 4x4s that never see mud in our city, Clifton, makes it clear that even here we don't have space for such fat vehicles. Even the parked ones like that silver mercedes is wider than the parking bay -and that's with the bonus wide Clifton bays.<br /><br /><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/PcoGk8YmcSk?rel=0" width="560"></iframe><br /><br />It really becomes clear following the BMW X5 across the suspension bridge. The thing is simply too wide. Why is it so fat? It's to compensate for the fact that it's centre of gravity is too high on account of the raised suspension: this is a land-barge which would topple over on bends otherwise, as Ford Explorers turned out to do. The X5 is so fat that when it meets and oncoming Landrover Discovery, they have to slow down to negotiate passing each other.<br /><br />In other bits of the city, in everyday cars, drivers would go past each other without even looking up from their<br />phones. Yet all it takes is one or two selfish drivers thinking "hey! an SUV would be cool!" and our city is brought to its knees.<br /><br />Hence our proposal: make the VED of a vehicle proportional to its weight and width. The weight: the maintenance cost of our roads. The width: how much they inconvenience everyone else.<br /><br />Without this, there will be no way to stop this plague of overweight barges on our roads. Bristol Traffichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17086394853567703369noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7803191245171285795.post-84713107434369943712017-02-06T11:46:00.001+00:002017-02-06T11:46:22.568+00:00Bristol Post: cut and paste journalism? Share the dataThere is one news outlet in the city whose coverage is insightful, cuts to the core of the city's problems and of whom every article is worth a read.<br /><br />Yes, we refer to <a href="https://thebristolian.net/">The Bristolian</a>. Being ad-free there is no need for central-HQ agendas to be pushed; no need to try and generate click-bait content at the lowest cost per article, and so instead they can write independent content.<br /><br />There is also another news outlet in the city, The Bristol Evening Post, which is part of <a href="http://www.trinitymirror.com/brands/media" rel="nofollow">The Trinity Grou</a>p, as is the<br /><br />We've been avoiding covering the Bristol Evening Post since it's "witty" <a href="http://bristolcars.blogspot.co.uk/2015/04/our-letter-to-bristolpost.html">Bikes and Lorries</a> April 1 2015 article. Every link we make to a low-value web site devalues our own rating in google's PageRank algorithm, and since most of their coverage is bollocks there's no real point.<br /><br />However, today it's time to link to an article, albeit through a nofollow marker: <a href="http://www.bristolpost.co.uk/revealed-the-number-of-cyclists-involved-in-crashes-while-undertaking-other-vehicles/story-30114217-detail/story.html" rel="nofollow">Revealed: The number of cyclists involved in crashes while undertaking other vehicles</a>, covering the 5-6 cyclists hit a year by going to the left of cars in those little painted bits of bollocks on the road.<br /><br />This turns out to be a seminal piece of work<br /><br /><ol><li>Because it appears in[Cox17],&nbsp;Tara Cox,&nbsp;<a href="http://www.cambridge-news.co.uk/news/cambridge-news/revealed-hotspots-cambridge-accidents-cyclists-12555403"><i>Revealed: Hotspots in Cambridge for accidents where cyclists undertake other vehicles</i></a>,&nbsp;Trinity Group Cambridge News , 2017, where 4-5 cyclists are injured/year.</li><li>And in [Grant17] Rob Grant 2017,&nbsp;<a href="http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/cycling-undertaking-manchester-police-figures--12552708"><i>Dozens of cyclists have been involved in collisions while undertaking, new figures show</i></a>, of the Manchester Evening news, where the collision rate is 11/year, no variance/stddev supplied</li><li>and [Grant17a],&nbsp;<i><span style="font-style: normal;">Rob Grant,&nbsp;</span><a href="http://www.birminghammail.co.uk/news/midlands-news/how-many-birmingham-cyclists-involved-12559555" rel="nofollow">How many Birmingham cyclists are involved in accidents while undertaking</a>,&nbsp;</i>Birmingham Mail, &nbsp;2017. Here the collision rate is "an average of 8/year", again, without any variance.</li></ol><br />As a news outlet that believe in weakly-defensible data to back up all our ill informed opinions, we are always pleased to see our press outlets following our strategy of "have an opinion, grab some meaningless statistic and then turn into an article defending our prejudices. Which as our detractors will point out, <a href="http://bristolcars.blogspot.co.uk/2015/08/those-pro-speed-petitioners-do-their.html">we do all too often</a>.<br /><br />But we do like to see that weakly-defensible data. Indeed, we're <a href="http://bristolcars.blogspot.co.uk/2015/12/dft-number-of-cyclists-on-m32-still-zero.html">happy to critique the DfT's data gathering processes as a relic of the twentieth century, and suggest modern, big data alternatives</a>.<br /><br />Which is why, given the broad covering of this seminal piece of work, we'd really like to see the data.<br /><br />Preferably<br /><br /><ol><li>The cleaned up DfT data, either in the painfully generic CSV format, or something more efficient and with tighter typing, like Apache Avro.</li><li>The data science notebook used to take the data and produce the numbers which got published. A <a href="https://github.com/blog/1995-github-jupyter-notebooks-3">Jupyter Notebook pushed to github</a> would be fine.</li></ol><div>Reproducible analysis of the results of an experiment is something which is becoming a big issue in science: given the same data, can different scientists come up with the same answers. Publishing the data <i>and the analysis code</i>&nbsp;is the foundation to this.</div><div><br /></div><div>At least this dataset is going to be small, it's not like the datasets lurking in&nbsp;<a href="http://castor.web.cern.ch/">CERN CASTOR</a>&nbsp;, or worse, the feed expected to come off the <a href="https://www.skatelescope.org/">Square Kilometre Array</a>, a feed that has everyone fucking scared right now.&nbsp;</div><div><br /></div><div>So to the Evening Post, as one datascience organisation to another,: if you are going to write articles on traffic issues in the city, &nbsp;even if they are copied and pasted from the same piece of tier-2 prose seen in Manchester, Birmingham and Cambridge: show us the data, or STFU.</div><div><br /></div>Bristol Traffichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17086394853567703369noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7803191245171285795.post-54117074682805422762016-12-17T12:46:00.000+00:002016-12-17T12:46:13.761+00:00A letter to Smiths of Gloucestershire, re the blind overtake of their van VE08NKXHello<br /><br />I'm the cyclist the driver of your van VE08NKX chose to overtake on a blind corner on Belmont Hill, Somerset, at 15:46 on 25 November.<br /><br />I'm the cyclist who shouted a warning to your driver that there was an oncoming car —a warning he chose to ignore: <br /><br />And I'm the cyclist who videoed your van nearly hitting the oncoming car.<br /><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/tMfPICSaEUY?rel=0" width="560"></iframe><br /><br />That car braked to avoid a collision, incidentally, and we both waved an acknowledgement to each other of how close it had been.<br /><br />I've not got in touch before; I was waiting to see how Avon and Somerset Police were going to respond to the complaint that I'd filed online with them. As the time limit for them to file a Notice of Impending Prosecution has expired and they are yet to get in touch, the answer is: nothing.<br /><br />Your driver has to consider themselves lucky to have not only avoided a head-on collision with an oncoming vehicle, but to avoid any form of punishment from the police for nearly doing so. That is despite the irrefutable video evidence showing them ignoring a shouted warning and overtaking where they had no visibility. If A&amp;S Police were to adopt the prosecute-on-video-evidence policy which the Central Midlands Police are now operating, they would now be facing a choice between prosecution to Dangerous Driving or pleading guilty to the lesser offence of Careless Driving.<br /><br />As it is: no prosecution, no pleading, no penalty, no points on their license, and no insurance premium.<br /><br />That fact reflects as badly on our local police as it does on your employee.<br /><br />Given the police's utter inaction, you can report to your driver that this particular near-crash won't result in any prosecution.<br /><br />However, you do need to consider your brand tainted. It's clear from your website that you take site safety as seriously as it needs to be —but it's also clear from the video that your staff are treating off site safety with utter disdain. This driver endangered other road users in a van with your business name and telephone number painted on three sides of the vehicle, making identifying this employer trivial. The more incidents like this, the more videos of your drivers will go online, the more that safety theme gets devalued.<br /><br />Please: tell your driver that in a world of helmet cameras and dashcams —the era of "getting away" with dangerous driving is over. If they drive dangerously in their free time, it is only the lives of themselves and others and their own driving license which they endanger. When they do it in company vehicles, it is your vehicles they are also threatening, your insurance premiums they are risking, and your brand that they are destroying, Bristol Traffichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17086394853567703369noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7803191245171285795.post-3185441678652275692016-12-01T22:16:00.000+00:002016-12-01T22:16:18.374+00:00The Psychology of Overtaking and VE08NXKThere is surprisingly little literature available online on the topic of The Psychology of Overtaking.<br /><br />One paper you can find dates from 1997, <a href="http://www.psychology.nottingham.ac.uk/staff/ddc/c8cxpa/further/CR_material/Overtaking%20AAP.pdf">Overtaking Road-accidents: Differences in Manoeuvre as a Function of Driver Age</a>, by Clarke et al, of Nottingham University<br /><br />Without going into the details, in particular questioning whether there's enough information on the general population of drivers and overtakers to reach conclusions about age, it does contain a good introductory summary of past work.<br /><br />One quote in particular stands out<br /><blockquote class="tr_bq">Wilson and Greensmith (1983) returned to the theme of the ‘‘inertial driver’’ in their multivariate analysis of drivers’ accident status in relation to observed driving patterns, gender and exposure. They report that accident-involved drivers drive more quickly ‘‘...and move around continually (especially overtaking) in traffic’’. The typical inertial driver differs from his high-exposure accident-free counterpart, in that he seems unwilling to change speeds in response to conditions by using gear changes, deceleration or braking.</blockquote>This is interesting, as it does document a common behaviour you encounter on a bike: the driver willing to endanger themselves and others rather than tap on the brakes.<br /><br />Here is a classic example on Belmont Hill, N. Somerset<br /><br /><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/tMfPICSaEUY?rel=0" width="560"></iframe><br /><br /><br />Although it's a sharp bend, the gradient of the hill means that you can see oncoming traffic, especially when they have their lights on in the late afternoon. Look up to the top right of the picture and you can see a car coming down the hill. Bear in mind, it is still daylight, there may be an unlit vehicle or cyclist, and they would not be visible.<br /><br />The presence of the car hasn't stopped the van VE08NXK from choosing to overtake precisely at the corner, going round the bend on completely the wrong side of the road. Either they hadn't looked or they didn't care. The driver coming down the hill was distinctly unhappy.<br /><br />It would be really interesting to see what the reasoning of the driver was here. We cannot but suspect that it would be a "the cyclist forced me to make a dangerous overtake" claim, when really it was a "I was unwilling to adjust my speed in any way". Maybe we shall find out, having just reported them to A&amp;S police as part of "Grass a Driver week".<br /><br />Bristol Traffichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17086394853567703369noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7803191245171285795.post-50694156032849959462016-11-28T21:06:00.000+00:002016-11-28T21:06:17.658+00:00Grass a driver week: MK59USB, texting across a junctionApparently some police forces in the country are now rolling out enforcement of driving too close to tax dodgers, maybe even section 59 ASB orders, which are interesting as there is a lower burden of proof. It doesn't impact penalties or insurance, simply threatens to take the car away.<br /><br />We watch these experiments with trepidation.<br /><br />Meanwhile, Bristol has a page to report incidents <a href="https://www.avonandsomerset.police.uk/advice/vehicles-and-roads/cycling/report-a-cycling-near-miss/">for their records alone</a>.<br /><br />This week we are conducting a small experiment to report a few dangerous drivers to this site, to see what happens. Expect followups if there are any results.<br /><br /><br />First, MK59USB on Tyndall's Park Road, crossing Whiteladies Road while reading their phone.<br /><br /><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/IM1aC3_OGWw?rel=0" width="560"></iframe><br /><br />There are now pedestrian crossing lights on some of the arms of the junctions, specifically Tyndall's Park Road has a walk and ike one (a small dip in the kerb allows the bikes over); Whiteladies Road inbound also has green. These require left-turns to be restricted, which has long been a rule more ignored than observed. The council has recently done some raised corner sharpening; be interesting to see what's happening.<br /><br />Where there is not any pedestrian crossing is on St Pauls Road —the Clifton Side— people run across when there is a gap, such as when vehicles heading inbound are waiting to turn right, and in that little gap between Whiteladies Road going read and TPR/St Pauls Road going green.<br /><br />Which means this mercedes is about to head towards a junction where there are likely to be people sprinting across. Will they put down their phone?<br /><br />No, is the answer, they keep on looking at it, going down to one-handed so they can hold the steering wheel with the other. About half way through the junction, they look up, notice the cyclist, and hold the phone down out of sight.<br /><br />Interesting question: what would have happened if the tax-dodger hadn't been there?<br /><br />The experiment begins, then, by filing this on the A&amp;S police site, see how they react.<br /><br />What about the full report an incident process? Too much hassle given its inevitable that nothing is going to happen. If they don't act when you go to the station with a CD of a video and a complaint, it's unlikely that they will react to a youtube URL.<br /><br />Bristol Traffichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17086394853567703369noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7803191245171285795.post-45368653716526808572016-11-22T19:38:00.001+00:002016-11-23T10:48:51.374+00:00Metrobus on the railwaypath? Again?the West of England partnership, henceforth known as the Bringers of Woe, have a <a href="https://www.jointplanningwofe.org.uk/consult.ti/JTSTransportVision/consultationHome">consultation on a transport vision for the future</a>.<br /><br />Key points<br /><ol><li>More people are going to live in Bristol</li><li>More people are going to live&nbsp;Weston Super Mare, despite evidence to the contrary.</li><li>More people are going to live in middle of nowhere dormitory towns near bristol, and hold unrealistic expectations about being able to commute into the city&nbsp;</li></ol><div>So, they have come up with a vision. That's a sort of a value between "no idea whatsoever" and "have a clue". Interesting to read, and so derive goals not just of Bristol, but the Outer Wilderness</div><div><br />North Somerset doesn't want anyone cycling to Bristol. We knew that, but their map doesn't even show the existing Festival Way as "a strategic cycling route", let alone propose it actually continue the extra 1-2 miles to reach as Nailsea. Instead they want an uprated A38 and a few tens of millions making the M5 more dangerous by turning the hard shoulder off at peak hours. Most interestingly the A38 to go to the M5 in a new junction. It's not clear what that will do, but apparently "This corridor experiences severe congestion ". If that statements is true, then the adverts for the <a href="http://www.j21.co.uk/">Junction 21 Enterprise Zone</a> you see while wasting hours at passport checks at BRS are lies. The advert? "15 minutes to Bristol". The reality? Not a chance. Yet here we are, with North Somerset saying "good transport links" on the J21 site, yet "experiences severe congestion" in another. One of those two statements is false —and if its the advertising, someone may want to complain.</div><br /><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-8p1mHTt1Las/WDSU9A1h7tI/AAAAAAAAGQY/esgKEaQ7SKQvvMPA9d3pB8a85nwN59VjACLcB/s1600/Screen%2BShot%2B2016-11-22%2Bat%2B18.56.08.png" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" height="344" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-8p1mHTt1Las/WDSU9A1h7tI/AAAAAAAAGQY/esgKEaQ7SKQvvMPA9d3pB8a85nwN59VjACLcB/s400/Screen%2BShot%2B2016-11-22%2Bat%2B18.56.08.png" width="400" /></a><br /><div><br /></div>Suggest: N Somerset consider alternative transport options to sitting in a traffic jam on the M5, and be open about its issues in the J21 site.<br /><br />South Bristol doesn't get a callout of its own, just coverage in Bath to Bristol corridor. There's a small problem here in that the key public transport route between the cities is the train —and central government have removed electrifying this stretch of line from their "vision". That is, not even on some random future deadline which they can postpone, it's an outright "we don't plan to do this". Which means that the one change which would have really improved carrying capacity on the line, reduced transit times and pollution from trains in the cities? Gone.<br /><br /><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-70DgwVOT-dg/WDSXv1j8GOI/AAAAAAAAGQk/RSvp5HwKmF8enKvBZc96MxI_OSiAcMrugCLcB/s1600/Screen%2BShot%2B2016-11-22%2Bat%2B19.07.58.png" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" height="344" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-70DgwVOT-dg/WDSXv1j8GOI/AAAAAAAAGQk/RSvp5HwKmF8enKvBZc96MxI_OSiAcMrugCLcB/s400/Screen%2BShot%2B2016-11-22%2Bat%2B19.07.58.png" width="400" /></a><br /><br />Saltford is promised a bypass. <br /><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-oQPK4ZTf4ME/WDSZLIYoB7I/AAAAAAAAGQs/vU6U0-715q4hFd9OK0o3Y_z6dB20ut4rgCLcB/s1600/Screen%2BShot%2B2016-11-22%2Bat%2B19.14.01.png" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" height="354" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-oQPK4ZTf4ME/WDSZLIYoB7I/AAAAAAAAGQs/vU6U0-715q4hFd9OK0o3Y_z6dB20ut4rgCLcB/s400/Screen%2BShot%2B2016-11-22%2Bat%2B19.14.01.png" width="400" /></a><br /><br />They also discuss LRT -Tram- along "the A4 Corridor". That's an interesting term there, as it doesn't mean "Along the A4", it just means "along the Avon Valley". There are two other options there (ignoring tarmacing the river). There's the train line, and then there's the Bitton-Bath stretch of the Railway Path, the stretch which has the steam trainists practising their hobby on a weekend. Could this be time to reinstate steam trains between Bristol and Bath? Brunel would be proud —they didn't have electricity in his day, after all.<br /><br />Suggest: residents of South Bristol may have transport issues of relevance too. Anyone who cycles in Bristol might want to look more closely at the LRT routing.<br /><br />Avonmouth, Shirehampton and Clifton Villages<br /><br /><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-grTOwqRDBas/WDSaaPEm5qI/AAAAAAAAGQ0/YDEtqq438JA4secvBuZ8_oFm1m9gS9FoACLcB/s1600/Screen%2BShot%2B2016-11-22%2Bat%2B19.19.27.png" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" height="341" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-grTOwqRDBas/WDSaaPEm5qI/AAAAAAAAGQ0/YDEtqq438JA4secvBuZ8_oFm1m9gS9FoACLcB/s400/Screen%2BShot%2B2016-11-22%2Bat%2B19.19.27.png" width="400" /></a><br /><br />Still a vision of getting the Henbury train loop in; still a vision for some more stations. Gloucester Road to Filton &nbsp;and beyond and Whiteladies Road/A4018 to Cribb's causeway down as Strategic Cycling Routes. We have no idea what that means, and suspect the WoEP don't either, other than it means "no need to care about it anywhere else". Not that being a strategic cycle route will stop anyone <a href="http://bristolcars.blogspot.co.uk/2013/07/this-is-dead-cycle-lane-no-its-not-its.html">painting out the bike lane</a>.<br /><br />Other points<br /><ol><li>"enhancements to the public realm". This is planner-speak for spending money on brickwork rather than functional transport systems.</li><li>There's not a single mention or illustration, anywhere, of people walking other than the phrase "cycling-and-walking" where the money will be split and each group will get their half of a pavement which will now have a white line down the middle. Yet for the inner core of Bristol and Bath, walking is the primary transport option. (we have no idea what it is for W-s-M, it probably involves riding a goat).&nbsp;</li><li>Page 14,&nbsp;or "other charging mechanisms.". That's either a parking tax, Low Emission Zone tax, or a c-zone charge.</li></ol>And finally, a look to the north east. That dashed green line? <i>"Light Rail Transport —Route to be determined"</i><br /><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Sx5Uk0S_X8s/WDSUDc0BKjI/AAAAAAAAGQM/IRf6Ib4WD4k3wR7TAU8zvrzRFFGiHtxAQCLcB/s1600/Screen%2BShot%2B2016-11-22%2Bat%2B18.51.22.png" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" height="281" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Sx5Uk0S_X8s/WDSUDc0BKjI/AAAAAAAAGQM/IRf6Ib4WD4k3wR7TAU8zvrzRFFGiHtxAQCLcB/s400/Screen%2BShot%2B2016-11-22%2Bat%2B18.51.22.png" width="400" /></a><br /><br />Unless you are going to build a tram line down up Fishponds road, there is only one place to put anything in there: the Bristol to Bath Railway Path.<br /><br />The last time the WoEP wanted to put a bus down there, there was a mass uprising of inner Bristol, with some support from outside. Doe they really think things will have got better now? Do they not realise that killing the path for the sake of a slightly faster commute to/from Emerson's Green is going to be acceptable? Not a chance.<br /><br />Suggest: recognise that the traffic volume, walking and cycling, down the BBRP is higher than any tram can achieve, and doesn't cost £2.6B. Council would be better off filing plans to run trams down there into the box of "stupid ideas we will pretend we never considered".<br /><br />Bristol Traffichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17086394853567703369noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7803191245171285795.post-72512008892113235932016-11-08T22:21:00.001+00:002016-11-08T22:21:49.218+00:00We say dust off and nuke the car from orbitPeople have coming up to us recently and been asking questions on our apparent lack of driving. The recurrent queries are<br /><ol><li>Why haven't we seen you parking badly?</li><li>Why haven't we seen you driving badly?</li><li>Why haven't you driven right behind us in the fast lane of the motorway at 90 mph, flashing your lights at us?</li></ol><div>For reasons which may be covered in a future post, the Bristol Traffic Important Car for Important People has now been officially written off; the insurers of the Important Car for Important People providing a rental car until a settlement is reached. The answers to the question are thus:</div><ol><li>We have —just in a Vauxhall Corsa 1.4</li><li>We have —just in a Vauxhall Corsa 1.4</li><li>We can't, it's a Vauxhall Corsa 1.4</li></ol><div>Here it is in all its glory, just after stocking up on marmite at Sainsbury's Brislington.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Vf83D1BZFFg/WCJGCQROntI/AAAAAAAAGP0/EODlN4NonAcXvxYgZgQKltJt3H7dODIPwCLcB/s1600/IMG_1431.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Vf83D1BZFFg/WCJGCQROntI/AAAAAAAAGP0/EODlN4NonAcXvxYgZgQKltJt3H7dODIPwCLcB/s400/IMG_1431.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div><br />Compared to a team member's MkII Astra 1.4L of many decades ago, the Corsa isn't that bad for luggage room, but manages to be tangibly slower. All the weight of modern safety equipment like airbags and ABS, along with power steering, electric windows and the like have made for a vehicle which struggles to break the 20 mph limit. Our urban speedo watching is now one of looking down at the mph dial as it gets into the late teens, muttering "go on Corsa, you can do it!".<br /><br /><div>Unfortunately, free vehicle that it is, it comes with a fundamental flaw: a £500 insurance excess and undamaged bodywork. It has both wingmirrors and the alloy wheels lacking those scrapes which mark a car christened for use in urban Bristol.</div><div><br /></div><div>It's not a matter of whether the car is going to end up with a wingmirror held up with duct tape, wheels documenting the kerb heights parked against, or graceful scrapes aquired on daily use. It's when. It even constrains parking choices: you start worrying in the night about what it will look like in the morning —that maybe you shouldn't have parked sticking out quite so much on that corner.</div><div><br /></div><div>Accordingly, rather than await the day when the car is returned and a large bill for damage presented, the team decided to return the car early, and borrow a parent's '53 reg Peugot 307 HDi. The parent in question had a little medical incident in August, their car parked up since then. Taking it away from them should help get them used to the post-driving lifestyle, which, in Portsmouth, "city by the sea", means getting used to FirstBus coming by once an hour, except on Sundays, when it drops to "who knows"<br /><br />Vehicle collected, successfully driven to Bristol. Compared to the Corsa, it's stable, and it's manual transmission and the minimal turbocharger give it a better 0-20 number —still not great for getting on the M32 from the secret Mina Road access point. With the changes there, you can't even be at 15 mph before you approach the merge point.<br /><br />But it's stable, and pre-commissoned for abuse in an urban environment. All it needs is cleaning up, the parent being one of those who like to hoard things in their vehicle.<br /><br />All goes well, the interior binned; time to go to the boot. Four cans of WD-40 and three de-icers seem overkill, but as a Glaswegian who used to own a Mini, the owner no doubt had picked up some habits they couldn't get rid of. That's not the issue though, the issue is what turns up once the boot contents are purged, and the layers underneath explored.<br /><br /></div></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-PNVjdfQdLHs/WCJGCJAx6HI/AAAAAAAAGPo/lV2RKPWvUvogVcMGyBzOgmZCaiJCRoAGACLcB/s1600/IMG_1416.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-PNVjdfQdLHs/WCJGCJAx6HI/AAAAAAAAGPo/lV2RKPWvUvogVcMGyBzOgmZCaiJCRoAGACLcB/s400/IMG_1416.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br />What's there? Moss large quantities of it. Enough that you have to look for David Attenborough and his camera crew.<br /><br />And under the moss? Water. Large quantities of water.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-DNXJpLK4YeE/WCJGCEQ5UiI/AAAAAAAAGPs/LN6O7Fat2GI9njW4iW1jxDN6Va5CN4LlQCLcB/s1600/IMG_1419.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-DNXJpLK4YeE/WCJGCEQ5UiI/AAAAAAAAGPs/LN6O7Fat2GI9njW4iW1jxDN6Va5CN4LlQCLcB/s400/IMG_1419.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /></div><div>The entire spare wheel compartment has about 2-3 cm of water in it. This is, well, unexpected, and best accompanied with the expression "What the fuck?"<br /><br />Now, Pompey is a coastal town, and it could be that there have been some high tides flooding the streets —tides covered up by the Portsmouth Tourist Board. This is unlikely, as the loss of the city to climate change is something that UKIP would be highlighting as a positive outcome of climate change.<br /><br />Discounting that, and deliberate human action, the other key hypothesis has "it's been collecting water from rain". With the car unused for a few weeks (this photo was taken early October), water could easily have seeped in to the stationary car.<br /><br />Except: it's been a really dry Autumn. Has it really been long enough for the spare wheel bay to fill with water <i>and plants to start growing?</i><br /><i><br /></i>No, this car has been collecting rainwater for some time.<br /><br />For anyone with ageing parents, there's always the question "when should they stop driving?" You always hope that they stop before they end up in a serious crash, maybe just a small one involving a bollard where the police suggest politely to put away the car keys.<br /><br />Maybe, just maybe, the fact that you've clearly been driving around not noticing the strange slushing sound coming from the back, or the odd fusty smell. One can but hope. That or bribe the garage doing the MoT to make sure the car fails.<br /><br />The wealthy in society, the Camerons, the Rees-Moggs, they look forward to inheriting the family estate, what with its greenery and lakes.<br /><br />Us: we fear the family hatchback.</div>Bristol Traffichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17086394853567703369noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7803191245171285795.post-69805101091398282762016-09-30T12:44:00.000+01:002016-09-30T13:07:32.370+01:00Causes of Congestion in the Greater Bristol Area: hint: not 20 mph zonesWhat has made congestion in and around Bristol worse —for those people driving or sitting in buses?<br /><br />Some people are saying it's common sense that it's the 20 mph limits, and that common sense beats data. No: thinking beats common sense.<br /><br />we can argue about whether @georgeferguson_x did things to make traffic worse; <br /><br />RPZs didn't; they add more passing places to the narrow roads, and if they discourage people from driving in, could reduced traffic levels.<br /><br />20 mph a factor? Not given average weekday traffic speed. (Source: <a href="https://www.waze.com/en-GB/livemap">Waze</a>)<br /><br /><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-PZBegXKdjSo/V-5N3qsmoEI/AAAAAAAAGPI/LOg4pifm4CYL0XuA3eFncBTOmMgUB7newCLcB/s1600/IMG_1399.PNG" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-PZBegXKdjSo/V-5N3qsmoEI/AAAAAAAAGPI/LOg4pifm4CYL0XuA3eFncBTOmMgUB7newCLcB/s320/IMG_1399.PNG" width="320" /></a><br /><br />One key point is that if the average speed in a road is 2-7 mph, as Stapleton Road is enjoying, then 20 mph is an unrealised dream. It's not the problem. Question is: what's causing that delay?<br /><div><br /></div>The main factor is&nbsp;<i>the number of people choosing to drive</i>. Evidence of this comes from looking at the M4 heading away from Bristol, which is going at 12 mph.<br /><div><br /></div><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-nZQCNR6DWBA/V-5N3aHJ92I/AAAAAAAAGO8/IFOZih7NJ0g4eEVnjz23p0Sroofy_r4KgCLcB/s1600/IMG_1395.PNG" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-nZQCNR6DWBA/V-5N3aHJ92I/AAAAAAAAGO8/IFOZih7NJ0g4eEVnjz23p0Sroofy_r4KgCLcB/s320/IMG_1395.PNG" width="320" /></a><br /><br />By choosing an away-from-city route we can avoid blaming metrobus related roadworks or buildup from urban congestion. There's none of : cyclists, bus stop buildouts, traffic lights or 20 mph to blame rather than accept the root cause of the traffic jam is the decision of you and others to get in the car that morning..<br /><br /><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-iCW9Ek1scmw/V-5N3gNrIrI/AAAAAAAAGPA/HWLRr1SpuTMCg7AvwMH0cizLjr_fSxc3QCLcB/s1600/IMG_1397%2B2.PNG" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-iCW9Ek1scmw/V-5N3gNrIrI/AAAAAAAAGPA/HWLRr1SpuTMCg7AvwMH0cizLjr_fSxc3QCLcB/s320/IMG_1397%2B2.PNG" width="320" /></a><br /><br /><i>It's people driving places.</i> Which may be correlated with population growth, and the growth of north fringe sprawl housing and offices. North Lockleaze, or, as it pretends to be, Chiswick Village? New. Those fields north of the A4174 by Emerson's Green? Houses you get to see from the M4. That's a change: more suburban housing, more people driving around the city.<br /><br />Secondary factors to motor traffic in town: &nbsp;junctions, buses stopping, vehicles turning right, cars parked where they shouldn't. All amplified by traffic volume: bigger queues, longer waits, more turning vehicles, more people "just parking for a minute" in a bus lane, so forcing the bus to try and pull out and increasing overall unhappiness.<br /><br />Traffic lights? They have a worse (but fairer) throughput compared roundabouts; see <a href="http://www.math.washington.edu/~morrow/mcm/4329.pdf">Modeling Roundabout Traffic Flow as a Dynamic Fluid System</a>&nbsp;(skip the pictures and look at the pics on P8-11, knowing that "flux" means "number of vehicles arriving per second"). Essentially, all of junctions overload, but two-lane roundabouts get the most through.However that paper assumes that you can get off the roundabout, which as we know at peak hours (Hello Bearpit! Hello St Pauls Roundabout!) doesn't hold. Furthermore by modelling traffic as an incompressible fluid, they miss out on the game-theoretic aspects of the problem, as in: <a href="http://bristolcars.blogspot.co.uk/2010/12/roundabout-work-2-0817.html">why you'd pull out in front of other vehicles, even if you know it will block others.</a><br /><br />Because one problem roundabouts and traffic lights both have is <a href="http://bristolcars.blogspot.co.uk/2011/11/no-not-our-van.html">people blocking junctions</a>, so <ahref bristolcars.blogspot.co.uk="" http:="" no-eye-contact-even-if-they-insult-you.html="">stopping cross traffic getting through</ahref>. If anyone has evidence of yellow-hash do-not-block zones ever being enforced, we'd love to see it. We lack that evidence. What we do <i>believe</i> is that it would reduce junction deadlocks and so boost cross traffic. Again, evidence would be good. Perhaps the council could run an experiment —like enforcing the law for a week.<br /><br />Fast moving cyclists? Nope. They just <a href="http://bristolcars.blogspot.co.uk/2015/10/bristols-2015-bike-survey-if-its-so.html">go past the queues and have an average speed above cars at peak hours.</a> This clearly upsets some people who resent the fact that they have to drive a Fiesta 1.1L up the A38. We would hate&nbsp;driving a Fiesta 1.1L&nbsp;too, even on an empty road.<br /><br />Cyclists at under 12 mph? No data. They are easy to pass when there is no oncoming traffic, so as the overall traffic volume increases, get harder to pass. Having bus lanes and functional (i.e. not blocked by parked cars) bike lanes, lanes considered safe enough by cyclists that they use them would eliminate that problem. And, if parking spaces taken away for them, reduce justification for driving in.<br /><br />Oncoming traffic? This is a problem in much of the inner city: there isn't space to get through down a road in the presence of oncoming vehicles. As well as traffic volumes, we have to consider whether the rise of the Urban SUV amplifies the problem. Not only does that oncoming Volvo XC 90 on the school run take up more space, the VW Touran parked alongside the Audi Q6 means that there is less open road to play with anyhow.<br /><br />Roadworks? We know about those, especially: in the centre, on the M32, along the A4174, the A370 and by Cumberland Basin. Hopefully they will be transient, as in "fixed before 2020"<br /><br /><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-JUXgLQKD28o/V-5N3UplOFI/AAAAAAAAGO4/NUFhNLoKZ34WwUjMdduaU71cIBNmMxAsACLcB/s1600/IMG_1394.PNG" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-JUXgLQKD28o/V-5N3UplOFI/AAAAAAAAGO4/NUFhNLoKZ34WwUjMdduaU71cIBNmMxAsACLcB/s320/IMG_1394.PNG" width="180" /></a><br /><br />One thing is for inevitable: the cost of delays caused by these roadworks won't have been included in their already broken cost model.<br /><br />When that Metrobus work is finished, will the problems go away? Not without some fundamental change in how people get into the city —which means that you need a compelling story from places like Yate, from Portishead, and the other dormitory towns. A railway from Portishead here is potentially compelling, because you get a direct line to Templemeads without traffic delays. &nbsp;It's a shame that central government beliefs (trains bad, BRT viable) and local government issues (naive optimism) have caused a focus on FirstBus as a solution.<br /><br />Will Metrobus be compelling for those actually in its catchment area? We have no idea whatsoever. Which gives us something in common with the metrobus team.<br /><br />Anyway, to close: for anyone saying "it's the 20 mph zones", or "its the traffic lights", we say "explain how the M4 moves at 12 mph on a weekday morning?"Bristol Traffichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17086394853567703369noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7803191245171285795.post-54404933661828652682016-09-29T21:26:00.000+01:002016-09-29T21:26:13.307+01:00Traffic Jams are caused by texting driversWith the proposal to expand penalties for drivers using phones, there have been lots of claims that the number of people texting has increased. That's something always worth validating with real datasets.<br /><br />Back in September 2013, we observed that <a href="http://bristolcars.blogspot.co.uk/2013/09/anything-clifton-can-do-stokes-croft.html">one driver in three on Arley Hill was texting</a>.<br /><br />Fast forward to 2016 and what do we see?<br /><br />On a single pedal-up-the-contraflow, we didn't see more than 30% texting, we'd actually consider it to be less. L008HUJ/LD08HUJ (not found in DVLA DB), CN02JKO, VN11OYA (taxi?), BG62YGA, BD65WXL, CE53GMG. Six cars out of thirty one; approximately 1 in 5. Less than before.<br /><br />What you can see though is that some drivers are so engrossed in their texting that gaps are building up in the queue.<br /><br /><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/oppL8rg2_XQ?rel=0" width="560"></iframe><br /><br />That's the BMW BD65WXL and the Zafira BG62YGA<br /><br />The Zafira's MOT expired on 7th Sept: that vehicle is not legal. And look at the gap the driver has let develop.<br /><br />You have to be utterly oblivious to your environment to not notice that there as was a gap of 5+ vehicle lengths in front of you. Five vehicle lengths! You don't normally get that in the city, or the motorways nearby, at least not during daylight hours. Yet she's happily looking down, oblivious to the world. And she wasn't happy when this was pointed out to her. Now, it may seem irrelevant, these drivers are all in the same queue. But anyone wanting to turn up Nugent Hill (as opposed to <a href="http://bristolcars.blogspot.co.uk/2013/06/the-arley-hill-contraflow.html">illegally contraflow down</a>), is having that opportunity denied to them, so creating needless congestion. Equally seriously, once the queue gets all the way to the roundabout on Cotham Brow, it has the risk of getting someone stuck in the roundabout, so blocking cross traffic. And all because they're curious what their friends are up to on Facebook.<br /><br />There we have it. If people say "why has congestion got worse?", we will respond "our data implies that while the number of people texting hasn't increased, the time those drivers spend on their phone has —so making congestion worse".<br /><br />Finally, at 1:11, the driver of CA09AKF is <a href="https://youtu.be/oppL8rg2_XQ?t=1m11s">reading a kids picture book</a>. Now, there did appear to be a child on the back, so this could be the way of keeping a bored child happy. Except: how do you read a picture book out loud? Do you turn it over going "tree!" "fish!", or what? Because the whole point of kids picture books is that you give them to the child to stare at the pictures while you do important things like check facebook for updates. If find yourself wanting to grab the picture book from the child in the back seat and read it yourself, well, life is bleak. Make sure your phone is charged up next time.Bristol Traffichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17086394853567703369noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7803191245171285795.post-31000529856584108362016-09-18T18:44:00.000+01:002016-09-18T18:44:04.207+01:00Always good to to say hello when driving, you only really have one emotion you can share: anger, through one button for the horn and the flicker for the lights. In contrast, on a bicycle, you can have spontaneous conversations with passing cyclists —even strangers.<br /><br /><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/IvonIqCR4BM?rel=0" width="560"></iframe><br /><br />Here we see our instrumented tax dodger striking up a conversation with a fellow cyclist. To make it more personal, rather than shouting out anything from a distance, say "I am coming through why don' t you look before you pull out", instead they wait until they are alongside the other cyclists before starting a bit of banter with a "hello!"<br /><br />Unfortunately, the other cyclist doesn't appear in the mood for idle chatter, and appears distinctly unhappy to have been surprised by the greeting. Of course, if he had actually looked before pootling out onto the roundabout, he wouldn't have been surprised —indeed, our camera-enhanced tax dodger may have missed the opportunity to make a new friendBristol Traffichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17086394853567703369noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7803191245171285795.post-63410947813770919732016-09-12T18:06:00.003+01:002016-09-12T18:06:39.741+01:00Clifton Occupied by Tax Dodging Cyclists!We were shocked and disappointed that we were unable to drive to Clifton in our Important Car, then cross over to Somerset and enjoy a round of golf with Liam Fox MP. Why? Tax dodging cyclists in the road —out road, blocked off to us,Important Tax Paying people, handing it over to olympic medal winners and the like.<br /><br /><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-wBTkAxhroG4/V9bbaxS1r8I/AAAAAAAAGOE/499yRmbuhGUK3u9Lb2MPvYAG_0bzuqorQCLcB/s1600/DSC_0114.JPG" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-wBTkAxhroG4/V9bbaxS1r8I/AAAAAAAAGOE/499yRmbuhGUK3u9Lb2MPvYAG_0bzuqorQCLcB/s320/DSC_0114.JPG" width="213" /></a><br /><br /><div>Lycra louts who do things like blow their noses in public</div><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-PKYOWm7_y6A/V9bbazclQaI/AAAAAAAAGOA/5AIGjJKfnuY_xz6hgwffIlJdZQGwFPMcwCLcB/s1600/DSC_0060.JPG" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-PKYOWm7_y6A/V9bbazclQaI/AAAAAAAAGOA/5AIGjJKfnuY_xz6hgwffIlJdZQGwFPMcwCLcB/s320/DSC_0060.JPG" width="320" /></a><br /><br />If there was one redeeming feature, it is that a lot of other people were as upset as we were to see this lycra-clad vermin —and they were standing there screaming at them for bringing the city to its knees.<br /><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-aXkLa4IlZgI/V9bbbd-h5oI/AAAAAAAAGOM/rPJnYcSgJ-ctOn4ppl3SZz16LpBffteEQCLcB/s1600/DSC_0290.JPG" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-aXkLa4IlZgI/V9bbbd-h5oI/AAAAAAAAGOM/rPJnYcSgJ-ctOn4ppl3SZz16LpBffteEQCLcB/s320/DSC_0290.JPG" width="320" /></a><br /><br />We we trapped in the city. Clifton was even begrimed with a large screen showing off that the portway and Bridge Valley Road had again been stolen.<br /><br /><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-65N143azkzs/V9bba716RvI/AAAAAAAAGOI/Sfnja_1XBTg2UM9QQpIRstSBCcwuEXaSgCLcB/s1600/DSC_0106.JPG" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-65N143azkzs/V9bba716RvI/AAAAAAAAGOI/Sfnja_1XBTg2UM9QQpIRstSBCcwuEXaSgCLcB/s320/DSC_0106.JPG" width="320" /></a><br /><br />This is exactly the kind of thing people voted against George Ferguson wanted to stop, but still the city wants to let people cycle around.<br /><br />It's fundamentally wrong. Look at this scene from The Promenade<br /><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-zc3YRmldKkM/V9bbbaKLklI/AAAAAAAAGOQ/n6Ujjl_tpAMT9Szw428NTS_-9clpFKIUgCLcB/s1600/DSC_0300.JPG" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-zc3YRmldKkM/V9bbbaKLklI/AAAAAAAAGOQ/n6Ujjl_tpAMT9Szw428NTS_-9clpFKIUgCLcB/s320/DSC_0300.JPG" width="213" /></a><br />Where are the revenue-bringing shoppers? Or the high-income tax band residents? Nowhere. Just one person on a bicycle who probably lives in a postcode other than BS8.<br /><br />This is unacceptable!<br /><br />If there is one redeeming feature, it is that Clifton Village is still not set up for more than six bicycles at any time, as their three sheffield racks were overloaded. Some of the tax dodgers even went as far as leaning their bikes against the wall of The Mall pub and trying to buy beer inside.<br /><br /><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-kUZ1lBioFFQ/V9bbbWCcqxI/AAAAAAAAGOU/Sp6sxxbx71U-4Qkvb-Mu5YgyelrOkhwsACLcB/s1600/DSC_0304.JPG" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-kUZ1lBioFFQ/V9bbbWCcqxI/AAAAAAAAGOU/Sp6sxxbx71U-4Qkvb-Mu5YgyelrOkhwsACLcB/s320/DSC_0304.JPG" width="320" /></a><br /><br />This is not some run-down bicycle friendly part of town where you can lean bicycles against walls; it is trying to stay upmarket. Fortunately, most of the cyclists in the area realised they were unwelcome and cycled off to other parts of the city once the event was over, leaving us nearly the only people walking round an near-empty village. The fact that village was so empty shows precisely why such cycling events must be prevented.<br /><br />But how to do this? We were going to spin up our automated cyclist-hating letter generator and have it email the Bristol Post. But what did we see on the Downs?<br /><br /><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-xPSSP-49t_Q/V9beKFGGpGI/AAAAAAAAGOg/pYB5Dmry74YIQ8xT9AOrSLuICWQeUBPgwCLcB/s1600/DSC_0297.JPG" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-xPSSP-49t_Q/V9beKFGGpGI/AAAAAAAAGOg/pYB5Dmry74YIQ8xT9AOrSLuICWQeUBPgwCLcB/s320/DSC_0297.JPG" width="320" /></a><br /><br />Yes —shocking, isn't it! Our paper, the one that hates cyclists, actively trying to sell copies to cyclists!<br /><br />We fear that the Evening Post has, purely in the mercenary need to sell to people under the age of sixty, has decided to start trying to ingratiating themselves with tax dodgers. They may think that will help them, but all it will do is alienate their current readership. It'll be like when all the pubs in Hotwells, including the Spring Gardens, the Pump House and the Mardyke suddenly decided they wanted to post gastropubs instead of places to get drunk in and start fights with strangers. This isn't progress: this is a sign of the decline of the city.<br /><br /><br />Bristol Traffichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17086394853567703369noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7803191245171285795.post-14345191629481826152016-09-05T18:37:00.001+01:002016-09-05T20:47:10.994+01:00Gateway to Clifton: The Christchurch Mini-roundaboutToday we celebrate the Bristol School run week, now combined with the FirstBus failure week, with very unexciting documentary of the "not quite a roundabout" junction at the end of Suspension Bridge Road. If you are expecting to see anyone nearly being run over, people on phones, etc. Look elsewhere. Sorry. This video is here just to look at what transport issues Clifton has which the Clifton BID and resident groups never seem to cover.<br /><br />Clifton likes to be known for its village, its Bridge and one or two of its pubs. The real Gateway to Clifton is something never discussed: a mini roundabout at the top of the village, just by the church.<br /><br />To get an overview without going to Clifton, look at it <a href="https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@51.4567922,-2.6199697,3a,75y,302.96h,83.44t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1s7HTEx4CicYsgaHRMaLCdSQ!2e0!7i13312!8i6656?hl=en">in streetview</a> and rehearse approaching the roundabout doing a right turn in a car from every road. Work out: when you should give way, when are you technically "in the roundabout and so should expect others to give way", and "is it actually possible to do all the turns legally". The answers being "no idea", "don't expect anyone to give way" and "no".<br /><br />If you are cycling over the bridge, or driving near it, you have to negotiate it. It's disconcerting on a bike, especially with a child, as you cannot predict what anyone can do. It's a collection of random actions, vehicles coming in at speed, nobody knowing who to give way to —or even what side of the roundlet(*) to drive on. It's not great on a car either. There may actually be some protocol for the locals, but if so they it isn't widely known. We don't know it, certainly. What the locals and regulars do know is not to expect anyone to treat it as a roundabout —and never assume that you have the right of way.<br /><br />You can see all of this in this unedited 9 minute view of the junction. Keep an eye out for the black Range Rover coming out from the left, and count how many times it does it.<br /><br /><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/OT1xz7bjM9c?rel=0" width="560"></iframe><br /><br />This junction is fundamentally the wrong shape for a roundabout, it has two left turns, one hard, one soft, with the hard one's give way markings about 90 degrees to the roundabout itself. No visibility for anything coming off Suspension Bridge as to what vehicles coming from their right are doing —vehicles which don't often slow down, and hence won't see any cars coming from the left until they pull out. Two manoeuvres can only be executed by driving completely on the wrong side of the mini roundabout. There's one car coming the wrong up the one way street, though it does execute the junction safely. Lots of vehicles going through without pausing, including one of the cyclists coming off Clifton Down. And a couple of times cars on the roundabout have to give way to vehicles pulling on in front of them. Note the lack of tension though —regulars are forgiving of what<br />happens in a junction of such ambiguity.<br /><br />Meanwhile that Range Rover coming off the left hand side does it five times in a row: our reporter got bored and went off while they were still doing it. <br /><br />Before the video recording started the RR driver had stopped in the middle of a zebra crossing to let someone out —presumably they were now waiting for that person to return. But why were they driving round in circles given that with the RPZ roll out there's enough free parking, parking they'd have driven by? Unless they enjoy driving in circles and don't pay for diesel, the only other possibility is they had/planned to use up the 30 minute free park elsewhere. But why not just pull over with your hazard lights on? This is just a sign that some Clifton residents really are different from the rest of the city. The rest of us have mobile phones to co-ordinate dropoff and pickup operations, and to offer something more interesting to do while waiting than making right turns at this mini roundabout.<br /><br />Finally: consider what it is like to try and cross this junction on foot. While it's not near the centre of the village, at the end of Manila Road (where the BMW drives out from the wrong direction of a one-way street), there's a primary school, some other ones nearby. And at the end of Suspension Bridge road is of course, the Bristol Suspension Bridge —one of the key tourist attractions in a city after Stokes Croft and the M4/M5 motorway interchange. As part of "beautiful suburb of Bristol, tucked away from the hubbub of city life and located just a five-minute drive away from the centre." we'd expect more. Maybe the shops sell postcards of it or something.<br /><br />(*), Yes, <a href="https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/roundlet">Roundlet</a> is a real word.Bristol Traffichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17086394853567703369noreply@blogger.com0Clifton, Bristol, UK51.456079361939693 -2.619865322119039851.44618536193969 -2.6400353221190396 51.465973361939696 -2.59969532211904tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7803191245171285795.post-58915624576077263682016-09-05T18:37:00.000+01:002016-09-05T20:46:52.241+01:00Gateway to Clifton: The Christchurch Mini-roundaboutToday we celebrate the Bristol School run week, now combined with the FirstBus failure week, with very unexciting documentary of the "not quite a roundabout" junction at the end of Suspension Bridge Road. If you are expecting to see anyone nearly being run over, people on phones, etc. Look elsewhere. Sorry. This video is here just to look at what transport issues Clifton has which the Clifton BID and resident groups never seem to cover.<br /><br />Clifton likes to be known for its village, its Bridge and one or two of its pubs. The real Gateway to Clifton is something never discussed: a mini roundabout at the top of the village, just by the church.<br /><br />To get an overview without going to Clifton, look at it <a href="https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@51.4567922,-2.6199697,3a,75y,302.96h,83.44t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1s7HTEx4CicYsgaHRMaLCdSQ!2e0!7i13312!8i6656?hl=en">in streetview</a> and rehearse approaching the roundabout doing a right turn in a car from every road. Work out: when you should give way, when are you technically "in the roundabout and so should expect others to give way", and "is it actually possible to do all the turns legally". The answers being "no idea", "don't expect anyone to give way" and "no".<br /><br />If you are cycling over the bridge, or driving near it, you have to negotiate it. It's disconcerting on a bike, especially with a child, as you cannot predict what anyone can do. It's a collection of random actions, vehicles coming in at speed, nobody knowing who to give way to —or even what side of the roundlet(*) to drive on. It's not great on a car either. There may actually be some protocol for the locals, but if so they it isn't widely known. We don't know it, certainly. What the locals and regulars do know is not to expect anyone to treat it as a roundabout —and never assume that you have the right of way.<br /><br />You can see all of this in this unedited 9 minute view of the junction. Keep an eye out for the black Range Rover coming out from the left, and count how many times it does it.<br /><br /><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/OT1xz7bjM9c?rel=0" width="560"></iframe><br /><br />This junction is fundamentally the wrong shape for a roundabout, it has two left turns, one hard, one soft, with the hard one's give way markings about 90 degrees to the roundabout itself. No visibility for anything coming off Suspension Bridge as to what vehicles coming from their right are doing —vehicles which don't often slow down, and hence won't see any cars coming from the left until they pull out. Two manoeuvres can only be executed by driving completely on the wrong side of the mini roundabout. There's one car coming the wrong up the one way street, though it does execute the junction safely. Lots of vehicles going through without pausing, including one of the cyclists coming off Clifton Down. And a couple of times cars on the roundabout have to give way to vehicles pulling on in front of them. Note the lack of tension though —regulars are forgiving of what<br />happens in a junction of such ambiguity.<br /><br />Meanwhile that Range Rover coming off the left hand side does it five times in a row: our reporter got bored and went off while they were still doing it. <br /><br />Before the video recording started the RR driver had stopped in the middle of a zebra crossing to let someone out —presumably they were now waiting for that person to return. But why were they driving round in circles given that with the RPZ roll out there's enough free parking, parking they'd have driven by? Unless they enjoy driving in circles and don't pay for diesel, the only other possibility is they had/planned to use up the 30 minute free park elsewhere. But why not just pull over with your hazard lights on? This is just a sign that some Clifton residents really are different from the rest of the city. The rest of us have mobile phones to co-ordinate dropoff and pickup operations, and to offer something more interesting to do while waiting than making right turns at this mini roundabout.<br /><br />Finally: consider what it is like to try and cross this junction on foot. While it's not near the centre of the village, at the end of Manila Road (where the BMW drives out from the wrong direction of a one-way street), there's a primary school, some other ones nearby. And at the end of Suspension Bridge road is of course, the Bristol Suspension Bridge —one of the key tourist attractions in a city after Stokes Croft and the M4/M5 motorway interchange. As part of "beautiful suburb of Bristol, tucked away from the hubbub of city life and located just a five-minute drive away from the centre." we'd expect more. Maybe the shops sell postcards of it or something.<br /><br />(*), Yes, <a href="https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/roundlet">Roundlet</a> is a real word.Bristol Traffichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17086394853567703369noreply@blogger.com2Clifton, Bristol, UK51.456079361939693 -2.619865322119039851.44618536193969 -2.6400353221190396 51.465973361939696 -2.59969532211904tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7803191245171285795.post-4647404129388472842016-06-14T10:46:00.001+01:002016-06-14T10:46:05.916+01:00The M32 shutdown: a preview of the Zombie ApocalypseMost films and TV series about some zombie or apocalypse or similar generally have some common visual motifs<br /><ul><li>A city partially destroyed.</li><li>Wild animals reclaiming the land. (example: 12 monkeys)</li><li>One or two survivors pushing shopping trollies. (Denzel Washington: The book of Eli)</li><li>Wide empty roads where the main protagonist can drive round fast.( Will Smith: I am Legend; the Walking Dead,...)</li></ul>It's the latter that interests us. After the fall of civilisation, you will never be stuck behind a bus or or a Renault Clio veering from lane-to-lane as their satnav gives last minute directions. There's obvious question: why did everyone die in a way which left a fast route through the ruined city? For that to happen, everyone in the last 30s of their life would have to get off the M32, pull to the side of Stapleton Road, then die. In doing so, they leave a nice through route for drivers, albeit for those few survivors trying to push a shopping trolley down the pavement.<br /><br />But an empty M32? It's almost worth starting a zombie plague just for that experience they promised us: centre of town to M4 in under seven minutes.<br /><br />Last weekend the M32 was shut down to put in a bridge —that is, local government funding for P+R commuters from the wealthy suburbs of S Gloucs, for students at UWE (more diverse than Bristol Uni), and the affluent staff of the North Fringe —the latter with a bias towards men in the engineering/tech career path.<br /><br />A whole section of the city —less affluent, more diverse and more interesting than Clifton— breathed a sigh of relief and a lungful of air that didn't taste of second hand turbo diesel. A weekend off. Something they haven't known for decades.<br /><br />For us, we got to experience something similar: being the only car on the M32.<br /><br />Driving down the M32 late Sunday evening, there are signs warning of the M32 closed at the Stapleton/Muller Road junction, or, to the affluent of the city, "the IKEA roundabout", that being the sole reason they'd ever get off here.<br /><br /><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-qcdR8fEIB6Q/V1_LwopeidI/AAAAAAAAGLw/15ODzgnN3N4hcaZEynNu6s3rqq3_VBqagCLcB/s1600/IMG_0696.jpg" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-qcdR8fEIB6Q/V1_LwopeidI/AAAAAAAAGLw/15ODzgnN3N4hcaZEynNu6s3rqq3_VBqagCLcB/s320/IMG_0696.jpg" /></a><br /><br />As we prepare come off, bringing up the phone to tell us how to get to Clifton without having to make eye contact with anyone, we see the flyover "40 mph limit due to faulty barriers" section. Some of the cars come off before it, a few stay on.<br /><br /><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-TiBFJv54QSM/V1_LwruPUWI/AAAAAAAAGL0/qntyBsY8nRsPom9o9x8rgOn9R_yoAzx9wCLcB/s1600/IMG_0700.jpg" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-TiBFJv54QSM/V1_LwruPUWI/AAAAAAAAGL0/qntyBsY8nRsPom9o9x8rgOn9R_yoAzx9wCLcB/s320/IMG_0700.jpg" /></a><br /><br />The first sign of an unusual situation is that the outbound lanes are empty: there is not a single vehicle leaving the city.<br /><br />The sole car in front pulls off at St Pauls, leaving an empty road ahead.<br /><br /><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-XVPuPUL3-UA/V1_LwsHn19I/AAAAAAAAGL4/LlZVLgFsmZYY-Fj0tesB9dkqOG4unL_ugCLcB/s1600/IMG_0701.jpg" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-XVPuPUL3-UA/V1_LwsHn19I/AAAAAAAAGL4/LlZVLgFsmZYY-Fj0tesB9dkqOG4unL_ugCLcB/s320/IMG_0701.jpg" /></a><br /><br />This is then: the first time that we have ever seen the M32 without traffic. Those vehicles opposite? Parked. When the Zombie Apocalypse comes, people will be required to pull over to the hard shoulder and put their hazard lights on —either as their last step of being human, or their first step as a zombie, before running up the exit and trying to eat anyone sitting in Mina Road park.<br /><br />For all those people who missed it: going down an empty M32 is not so much a discovery of what those builders of "the M32 parkway" imagined the experience to be, it's actually very unnerving.<br /><br />All motorways in the country are full of traffic, weekends as well as weekdays. That traffic actually provides cues. If the brake lights come on in the distance, something is up, time to start coasting down. If everything is going along at different speeds in each lane; all is probably well. And if all lanes drop to about the same speed, it's busy. Pick the lane with the best stopping distance in front and be calm.<br /><br />Most importantly, the other vehicles provide speed information. Because if there is one place where you do need to keep checking your speed on the dial, it's not the 20 mph zone. It's the motorways. Once you are going at 75, the vehicle noise going up to 85 is generally the same, and from there, 85-90, 90-95, easy to pick up if you get into the fast lane to pass things, then, while speeded up, start going along with the other vehicles in there. Motorways are where you do need to keep an eye on your speed. Which is what the other cars help do. <br /><br />Ignoring rain/fog/snow, when you should be making decisions based on stopping distance alone, you can generally benchmark your speed relative to other vehicles. If there are trucks going past you: either you own an original British Leyland Mini 850cc —or you should speed up. In the middle lane, going along with the Astras, the Golfs and the Zafiras: you are in the 70-80 zone, where generally most people sit. If you are in the outside lane going past those vehicles, maybe you should think about pulling in once you get past them. And if you are in the outside lane and there isn't an Audi Q7 driving so close to the back that you can see the nasal hair of the driver, you are going at less than 90 mph.<br /><br />In the absence of those vehicles, you have no idea what speed you are going. Instead you are too busy looking round, going "ooh, there isn't anyone in front; where is the car right behind me, the one in the slow lane about to swing past the HGV? And why isn't there someone sitting in my driver-side blind spot?". It's fundamentally unnatural —like nothing you have ever trained for. We ended up spinning up the motor to 40 mph and trying to cherish this odd event for as long as we can. <br /><br />Like Halley's Comet: We shall never see it again in our lifetime.Bristol Traffichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17086394853567703369noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7803191245171285795.post-76082306053453929832016-06-13T20:15:00.000+01:002016-06-13T20:15:19.702+01:00FirstBus: don't make it a class thing: the M32 commuters would never forgive you <br />A PR group funded by FirstBus and other bus companies have just <a href="http://www.greenerjourneys.com/publication/the-impact-of-congestion-on-bus-passengers/">published a "Dodgy Dossier"</a> on why their buses suck.<br /><br />The Bristol "dead" post went for it, but <a href="http://www.bristolpost.co.uk/Traffic-congestion-crisis-strangling-life-Bristol/story-29345795-detail/story.html">chose to blame 20 MPH and RPZ zones</a>, that is "max speed between queues" and "limit on number of vehicles that can park for free in the inner city". <br /><br /><br />In doing so they made a couple of mistakes<br /><br /><b>One:</b> In their claim "bristol is the slowest" they forgot to say "except Reading, which the graph clearly shows is slower"<br /><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Exr6l3phtHg/V178rbCM8wI/AAAAAAAAGLg/QndWy47iuYkTH1_rTq6-YBR0k0RM9-RFgCLcB/s1600/Screen%2BShot%2B2016-06-13%2Bat%2B19.33.32.png" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Exr6l3phtHg/V178rbCM8wI/AAAAAAAAGLg/QndWy47iuYkTH1_rTq6-YBR0k0RM9-RFgCLcB/s320/Screen%2BShot%2B2016-06-13%2Bat%2B19.33.32.png" /></a><br /><br />This is one of those things that the less mathematically inclined (i.e. the Brexit leadership) get wrong all the time. Smaller numbers mean "less", bigger numbers mean "more". According to the shiny graphs this PR agency made up, it takes longer to get round Reading. What's worse: you're in Reading.<br /><br /><b>Two:</b> They missed the key scapegoats of the bus companies: the cyclists. <br /><br /><br /><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-rc_XbDQqZOY/V17wSdvIzJI/AAAAAAAAGLE/eOGwMc5944c1RuCsTZ1KWQ86aSea7ukWQCLcB/s1600/IMG_0319.jpg" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-rc_XbDQqZOY/V17wSdvIzJI/AAAAAAAAGLE/eOGwMc5944c1RuCsTZ1KWQ86aSea7ukWQCLcB/s320/IMG_0319.jpg" /></a><br /><br />This issue <a href="https://cyclableblog.wordpress.com/2016/06/12/cyclings-dodgy-dossier/">has been picked up</a>, along with the brazen attempt by a media relations group to appear vaguely independent.<br /><br /><br />As for the congestion, well, looking at this video from RedVee of the Centre, you can't blame the cycling infrastructure —none—&nbsp;for the multiple lanes of stationary traffic<br /><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/OQL7OE1GoPw?rel=0" width="560"></iframe>.<br /><br />What's causing this? The combination of (a) too many people trying to drive and (b) The Centre being ripped up for Metrobus. Does the bus marketing document note that? complain that "bus passengers are being held up by the millions being spent in the city for bus passengers?". No: they pick on the noisy ones who make lots of noise but don't get dedicated lanes down the M32.<br /><br />And how do they do that: by calling out the cylists in London of being "wealthy" white men<br /><blockquote><i>What is less well-known, is how relatively affluent cyclists in London are compared with bus passengers. Transport for London describes the London cyclist as typically white, under 40, male with medium to high household income. [Further] A report by the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine’s Transport &amp; Health Group (LSHTM) in 2011 describes cycling in London as disproportionately an activity of white, affluent men. Only 1.5% of those living in households earning under £15,000 cycled compared with 2.2% of those living in households earning over £35,000’.</i></blockquote><br />This is something the cyclist campaigners have torn into for being bogus —but we aren't here to argue that. What we are concerned about is that they are using "benefits wealthy white men" as an argument against a transport option.<br /><br />For if we were to make a list of transport-related work going on in the city which would appear to disproportionally benefit the wealthy it comes down to: anything which makes it easier to get between the more well off parts of the region and their places of working, shopping and leisure. <br /><br />Specifically<br /><ol><li>Metrobus to Bristol International Airport connections</li><li>Metrobus as a P&amp;R alternative for most residents of North Somerset and S Gloucs.</li><li>The Managed Motorway work on the M4/M5</li><li>Bristol mainline train electrification</li></ol><br />And. let's be honest: the entire M32. The people living down alongside the Frome River weren't wishing they had a flyover at bedroom window height: they believed the same bollocks that politicians always say "yes you will suffer, but it will be better in the long term", and so a motorway went in to aid the people from Clifton to head to London; to help the people who moved out of the city to live in the rural wastelands past the ring road and their ghettos of boredom around Emerson's Green. And the inner ring road work started, thankfully never completed: But notice which parts of the city came out worse. Not the bits with money.<br /><br />We say to FirstBus —who also own FGW railway line—: don't make your war on cyclists a class one. Because that will call into question a lot of the infrastructure you are having built for you by local and national governments. Bristol Traffichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17086394853567703369noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7803191245171285795.post-50296543173832332892016-06-04T21:35:00.001+01:002016-06-04T21:35:19.073+01:00There is nothing erotic about a naked man on a BromptonBeing as the Bristol Traffic HQ is an open air drinking establishment in Stokes Croft (the wall on Turbo Island), we are used to the sight of nudity.<br /><br />Even so, our encounter with the Bristol Naked Bike Ride was such that we had to delete our videos for the sake of humanity.<br /><br />If you find yourself getting excited about the sight of a naked man on a Brompton, well, based on the participants of the local naked bike ride, you've got a bit of an obsession with folding bicycles that you should either get looked at, or at least get in touch with Brompton for a printed catalog.<br /><br /><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-EPDQp0cTnqw/V1M6wGRBpXI/AAAAAAAAGK0/0aeGreZaJcogcCGZDJRmgepGTbhU105NwCLcB/s1600/IMG_0553.jpg"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-EPDQp0cTnqw/V1M6wGRBpXI/AAAAAAAAGK0/0aeGreZaJcogcCGZDJRmgepGTbhU105NwCLcB/s320/IMG_0553.jpg" width="320" /></a><br />Can we also observe that this image exposes the lie that "cycling is good for your health". Do these people look healthy? We think not. And as for the claim that Brooks saddles are comfy? There's nothing to say there except look at the expression on some of these people's faces.<br /><br />For next year's ride, we propose having a review board deciding in advance who gets to ride. We will volunteer our services —provided nobody sends their nude selfies with them wearing nothing but hi-viz and a helmet. You know who you are.Bristol Traffichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17086394853567703369noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7803191245171285795.post-23458101504217592052016-05-13T19:51:00.002+01:002016-05-13T19:51:58.348+01:00Rejoice: we have a new mayor!So: we have a new mayor. <br /><br />What's interesting about the results is the sheer number of people who turned out to vote -and the proportion of those voters who came out to vote out George. Given one of the aims of the mayoral program was to "increase engagement in local government", it has certainly met that goal, one way or another.<br /><br />A lot of the city are clearly glad to see the back of GF. The big question is: which specific policies got people voting him out -or whether it was his general style of working: Unitarian decisions and dismissal of dissent- which got to people.<br /><br />Marvin may end up following the Labour Party line -but that party does have a local organisation and many councillors -so there is a structure for propagating the issues and desires of part of the electorate up to the mayor's office. <br /><br />He's promised to focus on those parts of the city which felt left behind, and address problems such as housing. Given the need to be seen to immediately fulfilling those promises, to deliver, expect work to start there. But given the lead time for such work, expect them to look for some low-hanging fruit elsewhere.<br /><br />RPZ and 20 zones are in an interesting place here. They have proved controversial, especially the way the RPZs were rolled out. But at the same time, a lot of people in the zones are happy with the idea, albeit not the details: charges, times, disabled access. Tuning those is a simple way to be seen to be listening, without risking upsetting those in the core who are happy with them.<br /><br />20 mph is also under threat. As with RPZ, the CAPEX is done: the signs and the paint. MR was not elected on a pro-speed platform and, with a large electorate within the inner city air quality "management" area, may be reluctant to upset those who see the benefit. Maybe he even recognises that trying to blame 20 mph for the city's transport woes is ridiculous. At the same time: the anti GF voters view it as part of the "war on motorists", and they will expect something in exchange for their vote. <br /><br />The often cited proposal "make it purely round schools, hospitals and residential roads" will resurface, even if it misses out that most roads have residents, a continually jittering limit its actually harder to comply with, and that children walk and cycle to school on main roads too. Oh, and any changes to signage means more capital spending. <br /><br />One tactic the mayor may try here is a discreet rollback of enforcement, though with the PCC being independent, that'll take negotiation.<br /><br />The other pet peeve of the anti GF voters is all that money spent on cycling. Good news for them there: he didn't spend much. If you compare what Boris did in London over the last four years —the embankment, the bridges, Elephant and Castle— what Bristol got for their money is laughable. What is there? a segregated path that stops half way down Baldwin street and the continuing fiasco of that path near Bemmy. <br /><br />The money, the effort, the time -and the road space- has gone into Metrobus, not bicycles. It's hard to see what worse MR could do here, short of taking away more space for BRT. We know someone still has their eye on the BBRP —fortunately the people of Easton love it enough to keep the buses out: if it was just the cyclists, it'd look like the M32, the centre and the Festival way do: roadworks for BRT.<br /><br />Metrobus itself? Marvin supports it. Anyway, given how far it has gone, the current BRT fiasco routes may be considered too late to kill. All future work could be put on hold until it's seen how well it works out in budget as well a use. It would also have be on how well the Elf kingdom of Somerset and the Dwarf Mines of S. Gloucs step up to their bit. About what FirstBus and Wessex Bus deliver. And about whether well a transport authority spanning the CUBA region can kick FirstBus into the 21zt century: contactless payment for all journeys, tickets interchangeable with Wessex bus. It's even about FBus having buses waiting at Templemeads and Parkway for GWR trains from London. <br /><br />Let's wait and see. Bristol Traffichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17086394853567703369noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7803191245171285795.post-76229581613129665742016-05-02T21:07:00.003+01:002016-05-03T10:14:48.911+01:00Where is our election coverage?People come up to us and ask questions. Usually we like them to say "would you like some more beer?", rather than the more frequent question, "Are you aware of the national speed limit in this country, sir?".<br /><br />Most recently, people have been asking: <i>"where is your electoral coverage?"</i><br /><br />Well, we've been primarily leaving it to other reporting outlets, specifically <a href="http://thebristolian.net/">the Bristolian</a> and <a href="http://www.bristol247.com/channel/news-comment/mayor-election-2016">Bristol 24/7</a>. If people are putting effort in to analyse voting records, do interviews and organise hustings, that's enough.<br /><br />A more relevant question people ask us is: <i>who should we vote for?</i><br /><br />As the people printing the ballots, we can say "you can't vote for UKIP on our photocopies as he falls off the end". Which is ironic as the spherical model of the earth is one of those sciency-things that UKIP candidates argue about, along with Climate Change and Newton's Laws of Motion (especially the bit that says <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kinetic_energy">the kinetic energy in a collision goes up with the square of the velocity</a>).<br /><br />Instead you get to make your mind up, noting that as Tony Dyer is the only one ever to have bought team members (including the late Chris Hutt) beer, he's got a head start.<br /><br />What we recommend is you, the voter, place the following items in the order you feel is most important.<br /><br />[ ] Right to speed at 35+ mph through the inner city<br />[ ] Right to park where you want in the city<br />[ ] Fundamental issues in society<br /><br />The <i>Fundamental issues in society</i> box can include: education; housing; the central-government imposed austerity program and the fact that it will get worse; how and why so few people brought up in Bristol are in science and engineering jobs in north fringe technical companies, Bristol's Air Quality Management Area and other environmental issues; Firstbus &amp; Metrobus. All the things that matter to those people who don't recognise that the choice between 20 mph and 30 mph is the most important issue facing the city today. <br /><br />Then choose a politician that appears to prioritise issues in an order closest to your own. That's your first vote.<br /><br /><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-D5Ygzeuxmek/Vyey3rFHT4I/AAAAAAAAGKk/GE6DAHofToY9agUZ124jzEJ4JwI2eHAlQCLcB/s1600/2016-vote-roll.jpg" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-D5Ygzeuxmek/Vyey3rFHT4I/AAAAAAAAGKk/GE6DAHofToY9agUZ124jzEJ4JwI2eHAlQCLcB/s640/2016-vote-roll.jpg" width="353" /></a><br /><br /><br />For the second vote you decide who you don't want in: Marvin or George —and vote for the other. Clear?Bristol Traffichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17086394853567703369noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7803191245171285795.post-25721228590723960002016-04-09T11:11:00.003+01:002016-04-09T11:11:39.982+01:00The M32 picnic areaA known subversive, "Analogue Andy", has been praising the Frome Valley cycle route, saying it joins up communities where the M32 divides them.<br /><br />Well, if the valley cycle route is of social benefit, it is purely because of the infrastructure improvements the M32 added<br /><br /><br />Look at this<br /><br /><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-l7QNcTnzUww/VwjUUk9XznI/AAAAAAAAGKI/69jb3QVMFXMA4TB3iSW6IwMbGeD65Xc6Q/s1600/6172852493_0d38549196_b.jpg" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-l7QNcTnzUww/VwjUUk9XznI/AAAAAAAAGKI/69jb3QVMFXMA4TB3iSW6IwMbGeD65Xc6Q/s400/6172852493_0d38549196_b.jpg" width="400" /></a><br /><br />An all-year, all-weather, family picnic area.<br /><br />Not even the bearpit benches offer such a sheltered area to take the whole family, park near IKEA, then walk over here to enjoy the afternoon.<br /><br />We would love to see any photos people have of this area in its heyday, when there were, presumably, many families, laughing kids playing, happy parents bringing flasks of tea from their Austin Morris cars to drink here.<br /><br />Sadly, even this photo is a relic: the benches have been converted into a skateboard park. The right to have a picnic under the M32 has forever been stolen. Well, unless you have a tartan rug in your Austin Morris.Bristol Traffichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17086394853567703369noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7803191245171285795.post-81682108292361693812016-03-10T20:39:00.001+00:002016-03-11T09:46:08.306+00:00CS11, the London Ringway and HampsteadPeople paying attention to videos may note that more than one of our contributors have London accents. One actually has a South London accent, which is pretty shocking, but they've lived in the city long enough for it to no longer be something to apologise for. Another one of our team has a north-west london accent, the kind you'd get growing up in Camden and Brent. Their dark secret is even worse than having lived south of the Thames. They first went to school in Hampstead. (For locals, that little one opposite the tube station, under the everyman cinema, <a href="http://www.hampsteadprim.camden.sch.uk/">the one that still believes in hymns and things</a>).<br /><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-V-sFlU5jTWY/VuG7jBue2oI/AAAAAAAAGJA/dGGGXNK35Hc/s1600/1-P1080499.JPG" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-V-sFlU5jTWY/VuG7jBue2oI/AAAAAAAAGJA/dGGGXNK35Hc/s400/1-P1080499.JPG" width="400" /></a><br /><br />Eventually their parents saw the error of their ways and moved into West Hampstead, making their children walk to nearby ecoles. Under the gentle hand that was the Inner London Education Authority, swimming was taught at the nearest council pool: in primary school you got a coach. Come secondary school, they'd worked out a better solution: the kids were given the money to get the tube during lunch; if they made it to the swimming lesson they'd get the money to go home. This presented the children with two choices: take a tube from Kilburn to Swiss Cottage, or walk to the pool eating the bag of chips you'd just bought with the fare. Tough decision.<br /><br />What was never considered was cycling from the school to the pool. Because that would involve negotiating the Swiss Cottage gyratory, a multilane mess which you had to cross to get to the pool or library, getting there along Finchley Road, the "A41" coming down off the M1 by way of Staples Corner and the North Circular. It was tube or foot.<br /><br />In London: the tube is the mass form of transport for anyone near a station. It's why what zone you are in is a marker of house prices, "They can afford to live in Zone 2!"; distance from tube station advertised because it makes such a difference on your daily commute. Off-street parking? Maybe for those few houses that have it —but it's not useful for commuting anyway. Not only is there nowhere to park, and congestion fees to worry about —it's significantly slower than the tube.<br /><br />Driving to work, at least if you work in Central London, is a minority form of commuting. That's even if you have a fancy job in the city: it's not that likely to have a parking space.<br /><br /><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-taf42jPt5TE/VuG7ixYiaUI/AAAAAAAAGI4/NH0BaPldieI/s1600/3-P1080490.JPG" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-taf42jPt5TE/VuG7ixYiaUI/AAAAAAAAGI4/NH0BaPldieI/s400/3-P1080490.JPG" width="300" /></a><br /><br />This is perhaps a reason for the volume of taxis in London, they're an exclusive form of travel for people who don't have parking spaces but can afford to sit in traffic jams. By outsourcing the sitting behind the wheel swearing to people from Essex, you can check emails on your phone, only at the cost of many pounds per journey.<br /><br />The rise of cycling in London, then, is arguably a consequence of dissatisfaction with an overcrowded, expensive and unreliable tube, recognition that the bus service was worse, driving even more stupid and getting in a taxi a transport for the wealthy people with time on their hands.<br /><br /><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-De1ybogkkbs/VuG7ix7fNfI/AAAAAAAAGI8/PJgWUkmtoPU/s1600/2-P1080495.JPG" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-De1ybogkkbs/VuG7ix7fNfI/AAAAAAAAGI8/PJgWUkmtoPU/s400/2-P1080495.JPG" width="400" /></a><br />Nowadays central London has a massive proportion of cycle commuters, those who are happy with a city worse to cycle in than Bristol, those who have learned all the back ways which are mostly survivable. When the new embankment and bridge segregated routes open, central London will show the rest of the UK cities how far they are behind, even Bristol, so proud of itself, can't do a pedestrian crossing of the Bearpit in less than a year, the Templemeads to Bemmy path is missing-considered-deceased, BRT2 has stolen bits of path and parkland, and then there's the centre and Baldwin Street. London is leading in both vision and execution. Which, when you consider the wanker in charge of it, quite saying something.<br /><br />What London is doing is setting a baseline for the rest of Britain, for cycling and even, with Crossrail, what you can do for public transport. Bristol now needs to step up, making it pleasant to cycle across the city centre without you having to rehearse in your head a safe route and factoring in you won't have a clue what to do by The Centre, and that Templemeads hates cycling.<br /><br />London needs to step up by moving out of the centre, to make it survivable to get in to the city, to make walking and cycling an option for people who live outside Zone 1. For a hint of the difficulties here, look at Vole O'Speed's <a href="http://www.voleospeed.co.uk/" target="_blank">coverage of Brent</a>. As visitors to Brent with the "Love Bristol, Go Brent" campaign, we can assure people that he's actually upbeat about the prospects for cycling in Brent.<br /><br />And Hampstead? With its primary school off a traffic jam of taxis? What hope does it have?<br /><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-1ReuiEWq7tg/VuG7kAZwDhI/AAAAAAAAGJE/FKq3qmyIFNM/s1600/4-P1080488.JPG" imageanchor="1"> <br /><img border="0" height="400" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-1ReuiEWq7tg/VuG7kAZwDhI/AAAAAAAAGJE/FKq3qmyIFNM/s400/4-P1080488.JPG" width="300" /><br /></a><br /><br />In CS11, it <a href="https://consultations.tfl.gov.uk/cycling/cs-11" target="_blank">has the chance of a safe route to cycle from Swiss Cottage to the city centre</a>, a feed in route for everyone in north west London. If you can get by bike to Swiss Cottage, you can carry on to your destination know that you'll be alive when you get there. Instead of having to text your loved ones "I'm at work, I'm fine!", you'd be able to text them "I'm on CS11, I'll live today!".<br /><br />Except of course, the residents of St John's Wood don't want it, as it will make driving to Hampstead harder. And they <a href="https://www.change.org/p/transport-for-london-stop-transport-for-london-s-ill-planned-cycle-superhighway-11-scheme-in-north-london" target="_blank">are leading Britain's Backlash</a>.<br /><br />The comments are absolutely worth reading. Take this one from "Craig", resident of Hampstead village for nine year.<br /><br /><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-MarEIHz2hRs/VuHS5_IP59I/AAAAAAAAGJk/yvxwFHZJAcU/s1600/Screen%2BShot%2B2016-03-10%2Bat%2B20.02.14.png" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-MarEIHz2hRs/VuHS5_IP59I/AAAAAAAAGJk/yvxwFHZJAcU/s400/Screen%2BShot%2B2016-03-10%2Bat%2B20.02.14.png" /></a><br /><br /><br />He is complaining that a cycle lane a mile away will devaluation the properties in Hampstead. That's an area where they are <a href="http://www.foxtons.co.uk/properties/uk-london-hampstead-97/properties-for-sale-in-hampstead.html">asking for £1.7M for a a flat, £3M for a house</a>. So Craig, nine year resident, is worried that the resale value of his house will drop, by, what? a thousand pounds? Ten thousand? Because really it'd have to be a couple of hundred thousand pounds worth of devaluation.<br /><br /><br />And here's the irony. The sole reason that he has his £3.5M house is because in the 1970s, people <a href="https://youtu.be/yUEHWhO_HdY">fought to stop it having a motorway over it</a>.<br /><br /><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-k3ZN4TB_HOU/VuHQq_1lG7I/AAAAAAAAGJY/wxN--qhrCLk/s1600/Screen%2BShot%2B2016-03-10%2Bat%2B19.31.34.png" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-k3ZN4TB_HOU/VuHQq_1lG7I/AAAAAAAAGJY/wxN--qhrCLk/s400/Screen%2BShot%2B2016-03-10%2Bat%2B19.31.34.png" /></a><br /><br />If the GLC had got its way then, the quaint little houses of Craig and others would be in the shadow on a par with London's Westway, a faint miasma of NOx and diesel particles infiltrating the house, adding extra flavour to the coffees their Nescafe-coffee pod cafe macchiatos, creating more traffic on every single road, and generally making the area even less pleasant to live in —as if having it full of people like Craig wasn't bad enough.<br /><br />That was what London dodged: The ringway over Hampstead. Instead they got the status quo, which, with the vast cross-london school run, the emergence of diesel as the fuel of choice, killing those kids from NOx and lack of exercise. And yet these people don't want change —they expect to be able to drive round the city. First the school dropoff then on to the underground parking at Waitrose&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Barnes_(department_store)" target="_blank">John Barnes</a>, on to the gym for your spin class, up the road to pick up the children (Walk to school! Have them use public transport! Never!), then nip down to central london for a play or two, parking at westminster being outrageous, but well, so's the mortgage on a little Hampstead mews house, as is theatre tickets, what's another £30 on the evening —why, it's the amount of tip the au-pair would expect, isn't it?<br /><br />Apparently there's <a href="http://www.voleospeed.co.uk/2016/03/demo-on-cs11-tomorrow-show-support-for.html" target="_blank">a demonstration of support for the proposal</a> on Friday, March 11. Us: we'd be more tempted to head to the anti demonstration to see who it is arguing against them —because they sound like the Donald Trump supporter of transport.<br /><br />To close then, one last opposition comment: we can't have cycle paths in our cities because we have road, not canals.<br /><br /><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-4HKlefqeUs4/VuHaKlvWU6I/AAAAAAAAGJ4/DOkuXq34HvM/s1600/Screen%2BShot%2B2016-03-10%2Bat%2B20.23.53.png" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-4HKlefqeUs4/VuHaKlvWU6I/AAAAAAAAGJ4/DOkuXq34HvM/s400/Screen%2BShot%2B2016-03-10%2Bat%2B20.23.53.png" /></a><br /><br />If CS11 gets stopped, it'll because of people like this.<br /><br />Bristol Traffichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17086394853567703369noreply@blogger.com0